JAKARTA: Indonesian leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is days away from a decision on a corruption scandal that will test his election pledge to fight rampant graft and possibly define his presidency.
The president is expected to announce next week his response to the recommendations of an independent legal team set up to look into an alleged plot by law enforcers to frame senior officials at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The alleged conspiracy, exposed by KPK wiretap recordings played in court earlier this month, has shocked the nation with the extent of the apparent collusion of police and prosecutors—the “court mafia”—to pervert justice.

Yudhoyono is under extreme public pressure to accept the fact-finding team’s recommendations—that corruption charges against two KPK deputy heads be dropped and sanctions leveled against top police and prosecutors.

“The president will be staring his own political suicide in the face if he refuses to follow up fully on the recommendations,” English-language daily The Jakarta Post said in an editorial Wednesday.
“His choices are limited: defend the corrupt officials, or defend the people who are deeply hurt by their brutal behavior.”

Anger erupted after wiretap recordings captured senior police and prosecutors discussing ways to apparently frame the two commissioners.

The anti-graft investigators were arrested last month but were released after the KPK’s recordings were played in court on November 3.

The crisis comes just a month into Yudhoyono’s second term, which was won by a landslide in July in part due to pledges to tackle corruption.

Despite his clear mandate, the liberal ex-general has insisted he will not be “pushed” into doing anything that could be construed as overstepping his constitutional authority.

Anti-corruption activists say the longer he dithers the more ordinary Indonesians, and foreign investors deemed crucial to Indonesia’s long-term economic growth, will start to question his motives.

“The president should understand that democratic leaders do not fall because of the scandal, but because of the attempt to cover up,” said Bambang Harymurti, a senior editor of Tempo news magazine.

He said Yudhoyono had been slow to grasp the extent of public anger over the alleged police war on the KPK, which has seen street protests and over 1.3 million people join a pro-KPK group on social networking site Facebook.

The president has also been forced to swat back suspicions that he himself was a supporter of plans to weaken the KPK, with the wiretaps containing several mentions that the plot had the blessing of “RI-1,”code for Yudhoyono.

Some analysts have linked the suspected anti-KPK conspiracy to election finance for Yudhoyono’s centrist Democratic Party and a $710-million government bailout of a failing bank last year.
“More and more rumors are circulating about the president,” Denny Januar Ali, an analyst from pollsters the Indonesian Survey Circle said.

Yudhoyono has staunchly denied any involvement in the alleged plot against the KPK and pledged to dismantle what he called the “court mafia” within the first 100 days of his second term.
AFP